Los
Angeles designer Trina Turk is launching her first
comprehensive handbag collection for the fall
season

Los
Angeles designer Trina Turk’s universe is
ever-growing. For spring, she added shoes and activewear
to her line. And landing in stores now for the fall
season is her first comprehensive handbag collection.

Turk,
who is known for playful prints and retro SoCal chic,
recently hosted a poolside soiree at her home to
celebrate the launch of the bags, which are priced from
$158 to $598. We chatted with her about the details.

Why
handbags?

Until
now, we had been buying handbags from other resources.
But we have 10 stores, and we’ve seen that our
customers want a Trina Turk bag. We had dabbled in
making bags in-house in the past, but this time, we
found a great L.A.-based partner, Signal Brands, which
has expertise in the category. They’ve been great to
work with.

What
was the starting point? I imagine you have a big
collection of vintage bags.

We
probably have about 100. We’ve been collecting bags
for the 19 years we’ve been in business. So we started
by going through them all to spark ideas, which could
just be a detail or a piece of hardware. We ended up
dividing the collection into three categories.
Essentials are your everyday, workhorse bags, like the
Manhattan tote, which we did in various versions, one
with a black-and-white woven texture, another in all
leather and a third with a haircalf panel. The Luxe
category is geared toward evening, with lots of clutches
with specialty novelty materials. We did a group that
incorporates chain mail mesh in matte black, silver and
gold, which really references the 1970s, including a
foldover clutch called the Kir Royal. The Sunset clutch
is also a fun leather clutch with a wood handle. I like
the mix of materials. It’s modern but also bohemian.
And the third category is Sun, which is not as important
for fall, but it’s something we have developed to go
into spring 2015.

What
is your favorite feature on the bags?

My
favorite feature is the big tassel. We worked on
multiple tassels before we landed on the right one. It
comes on some bags, but we’re also selling it
separately as a clip-on or key fob.

Tell
me about the color palette.

There
is a lot of color-blocking and texture mixing. For
example, the Modernista hobo is a colorblocked bag where
one color is subtle and the other one bright. Since our
clothing collection is very print and pattern heavy, we
didn’t want to also have print heavy bags, because
that would be a hot mess.

What’s
new in shoes?

For
fall, we have a lot more high heels and suede, which
takes the color so nicely. The Laguna is a peep toe,
high-heel mule with wing-like details, and it comes in
this beautiful port-colored suede. And the Larkspur is a
twist-front suede high-heel sandal that comes in bright
loganberry or black. The shoes are made in Brazil.

New
shoe and handbags styles are being released seasonally,
along with your clothing collections. So what was the
inspiration for your fall ready-to-wear collection?

Our
fall ready-to-wear collection was conceived around the
idea of driving down Sunset Boulevard from the Silver
Lake community in East Los Angeles to the ocean, which
is kind of cheating because that covers a lot of
territory. Silver Lake is very bohemian, which echoes
our early fall delivery. Then, as you drive through
Hollywood, it’s more urban with taller buildings,
which ties into the geometric prints in our collection.
Beverly Hills is very green and verdant and lush, which
is represented by the exploding floral prints. Then you
get to the beach.

Do
you do that drive often?

Usually
when someone is visiting from out of town. The drive
does say a lot about what the city is; it’s a mixture
of everything.